I agree. I've been working on a Go library for 8 years now that I'm sure is used by quite some people and companies, and I've been close to burnout and letting it go at least twice. I'm super happy when people just "Buy me a coffee"--not for the coffee but for the feedback you get that someone is using your project, so it's valuable for someone. I'm very grateful for that, even without financial support.
I think GitHub should really have a way for users of your repository to somehow illustrate that they're using your project. Maybe that'd even help to get into contact with your users and the companies building solutions on top of your product. Maybe it's just me, but I often feel blind to how and where your project is being used.